Vinli Home Connect lets your house and car talk to each other

In the year 2016, your car can talk to your phone, your computer, and even your mechanic, but what about your house? As smart cars and smart homes continue to evolve, it’s only a matter of time before vehicle-to-dwelling communication is a part of our daily routines.

We inched a little closer to that future today, as the makers of the Vinli connected car system have announced a new product called Vinli Home Connect — a cross-platform interface that allows vehicles to connect with domiciles.

Imagine you’re coming home from work, and your family’s trusted rig crosses some specified boundary — a driveway, a subdivision, a neighborhood gate — and when it does, the vehicle’s connected computer reaches out to the electronic brain at the center of your connected home. Depending on your preferences, the car could instruct the lights inside to turn on, the doors to unlock, the climate control to ramp up, or even the oven to preheat. In Vinli’s words, the house “wakes up.”

It works in the opposite direction as well; the company gives an example of a driver being the last to leave home, and when their car crosses the boundary, the security system automatically arms. Rather than acting on a timer, however, Vinli Home Connect prepares for the resident’s arrival ahead of time, and departure upon receiving notice, and acts accordingly, no matter when it happens to occur.

“We’re seeing this rapid growth of integrations being developed for the connected home and car markets, but this is creating a fragmentation problem and frustration for the consumer,” said Mark Haidar, founder and CEO of Vinli. “Our team has created an elegant, easy-to-use solution for connected homes in the U.S. and abroad, so consumers can seamlessly manage their network of connected home products and connected vehicles, all from a single source.”

Vinli Home Connect functions on top of the brand’s connected car platform, which is enabled by an OBDII connector that works on cars 1996 and newer. Homes equipped with connected systems like Nest, Icontrol Networks, and Samsung’s SmartThings are compatible for integration with the app.

Did you know you can make your Christmas tree smart, just like many of the other electronics and gadgets in your home? You can even create routines involving your tree. Here’s how to make a smart Christmas tree this holiday season.

Smart hubs and speakers play central communication and management roles in your home, but smart plugs let you add lights and appliances to your system. Any smart plug you buy must support one feature or anything you plug in stays dumb.

Stuck talking to yourself? Get an A.I. assistant to keep you company! Whether you put your stock in Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri, we've picked out the best smart speaker for any smart home ecosystem.

Audi is bringing two technologies to CES 2019. The first turns a car -- a luxury sedan, in this case -- into a drive-in movie theater. The second is presented as a new entertainment format that turns the journey into the destination.

California approved a regulation that targets an all-electric public bus fleet for the whole state by 2040. The effect of the full implementation of the regulation is equivalent to taking 4 million cars off the road.

Ford is ending 2018 by venturing into the doghouse market. The company's European division has built a kennel equipped with active noise-canceling technology and soundproof walls that help dogs sleep through fireworks.

Your car and your smartphone are becoming one, yet smartphones branded or co-created by car companies are a problem. We look at the history, some examples of the best and worst, then share hopes for the future.

The best compact cars on the market rival their counterparts in many ways, proving that bigger isn’t always better. Here, we've rounded up some of the better options available, including an SUV and an electric alternative.

The 1961 Lincoln Continental became a design icon thanks to center-opening "coach doors" (also known as "suicide doors"). Lincoln is bringing those doors back for a special edition of the 2019 Continental.